“Commerce in Human Souls” exhibit at UIC Special Collections and University Archives

“Commerce in Human Souls” presents historic letters, diaries, ledgers, and drawings to tell the dark story of the Atlantic slave trade.On display are rare 18th and 19th century documents that dramatically represent a vast, 300-year long international enterprise that shaped many of the economic, political, racia,l and social beginnings of our contemporary world.

The exhibit is the result of a collaboration between Nancy Cirillo, Valerie Ann Harris, Peggy Glowacki, and many others. Drawing on UIC’s Atlantic Slave Trade Collection, Sierra Leone Collection, and Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies, they created an exhibit that demonstrates howthe Atlantic slave trade fueled the economies of most of the western European nations and their colonies in the New World.